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GRAPEVINE-

Rents too high _ says city councillor

If you're paying too much for your tickets, it 5 probably Edinburgh City Council to blame.

Words: Doug Johnstone

Sky high rents and a lack of understanding from Edinburgh Council are in danger of seriously damaging the Edinburgh Fringe. A number of recent examples have highlighted the need for a co- ordinated policy within the council. A total rethink about the way it treats promoters and artists is surely long overdue.

One venue that won’t be at the Fringe this year is the famous Spiegeltent on Princes Street. Despite being a mainstay of the Fringe for over ten years, the tented venue will not be in the centre of town this year because the rent being asked by the council for the piece of grass next to the Wallace Monument is excessive (several acts including the Poozies, Tam White and Bert Jansch have been relocated to the Book Festival.)

Last year the tent had to move from the then Waverley Centre due to renovation work, and its rent leapt from £7000 on the privately owned shopping centre to £20,000 just across the road on council property. What’s more, this rent increase was sprung on the organiser David Bates at the last minute, and with the same rent being asked this year, Bates has decided that the costs of returning this year are too high.

'They have to make a decision as to the value of the festival,’ he says. ’Their lack of policy and their hard line on finances are tending to alienate producers and performers. The choice is theirs, whether they want to nurture their festival or shoot it in the foot.’

This is far from an isolated incident. The Flux festival, which has brought us Orbital, Nick Cave and Faust over the last three years, is another casualty at the hands of the council’s exorbitant rent demands. Again, last minute increases in rent for Princes Street

were sprung on organiser David Sefton last year, and he has decided that it simply isn’t worth the expense to return to Edinburgh this year.

The situation is one which Fringe director Paul Gudgin feels needs prompt action before the festival and the city seriously start to suffer. 'We'd like to see the council working closely with us at establishing a policy across the board about venue rent during the festival,’ he says. ’They’re not the only people in the city responsible for high rents, but they’re in a position to take a lead. If they reduced their rents that would inevitably influence the rest of the market.’

Surprisingly, another person who’s hit out at the council's rents is its own recreation convenor, Steve Cardownie. ’We should not be in the business of trying to screw the last pound out of promoters, thinking they’re all driving around in Rolls Royces and smoking Cuban cigars,’ he says. ’Councillors have to be mindful that a lot of these promoters are risking their all putting on shows and they need as much help as they can get. We should be grateful that we’ve got the greatest art show on earth within our city. As the council we should be giving a lead and you don't do that by jacking up pnces.’

The price of success

That’s the way the money goes So, you’ve paid your tenner to go and see some thought-provoking, innovative drama, but where does all that ticket money go? The Reader, being performed for

three weeks at the Assembly Rooms by Borderline Theatre Company, costs £9 during the week and £10 at the weekend, and is a typical example. Of that £10, the biggest chunk, a whopping £4, goes on rent to the Assembly Rooms. Add to that £1.75 in VAT which goes to the

government, 75p which goes to the Fringe Society, and 50p spent on marketing the show, and you're left with around 30% of the ticket price to cover wages, subsistence, transport and company overheads.

Borderline has budgeted for a 60% 7. ge

‘. C n .

. approximately \ £8000 in its hand.

capacity Bear in mind, this is to

attendance at its shows, which means that over a three- week run, this £3 per ticket amounts to

8 THE llST FESTIVAL GUIDE 10—17 Aug 2000

cover the wages of the four cast members, three technicians, director, designer and lighting designer, not to mention the company’s eight permanent staff. Not much really is it?

Chief executive of Borderline, Eddie Jackson, explains: ’If we're really lucky we can cover our costs for wages, promotion, subsistence, transport with what we’ve got left; we'll not actually make any money. The nature of the show is such that it’s just targeted at breaking even.’

So, it’s not exactly a bed of roses for companies trying to put on a show at the Edinburgh Fringe, and the higher costs get, the more chance that they’ll decide simply not to bother. And Edinburgh would surely be a poorer place for that. (Doug Johnstone)

.luicy bits Choice Festival fruit

’I CAN’T BELIEVE anything could go more wrong,’ says a spokesperson for Theatrum Botanicum, the company performing Lady Salsa at Edinburgh’s Garden Party. Bringing over a large company from Cuba was never going to be easy, but this journey got quite out of hand. First off, they bought their air tickets but the company's visas didn’t come through, so the tickets had to be changed. Then a delay meant they lost their connecting flight to Edinburgh and had to fly to Heathrow. They booked a coach to complete the trip only to find that the driver had left when they arrived two hours late, claiming he wouldn’t have time to make it back for his next assignment. So then it was a trip to Stansted and an unbudgeted £1000 to fly to Edinburgh. They arrived at 11pm to discover all the buses had gone. Luckily, director Toby Gough knew a guy with a minibus and for £40, persuaded him to help them do the final leg. Only he didn't. No sooner were they loaded up than the minibus suffered a flat tyre. The only thing left was to shovel everyone into taxis.

BUT THAT WASN’T the end of it. In the meantime, Air France had lost the company’s

luggage, which meant no musical instruments and no costumes. They assumed it’d gone astray in Paris, but now it seems it never left Havana. For the first press performance on Sunday, they appeared with borrowed instruments and dodgy American shirts out of Flip. But all was not lost. 'They’re so raunchy, they're like visual Viagra,’ says the spokesman. ‘When you see them dance, it doesn't matter.’

CATHERINE LOCKERBIE HAS been appointed successor to Faith Liddell as director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Lockerbie will leave her post as literary editor on The Scotsman in September, replacing Liddell who is standing down after a successful three years.